Love and Trust
by In A Rush
Summary: After Stella does the unthinkable, Shannon struggles with dealing with what she has learnt from members of the team. Will Stella be able to get through to her?
1. Chapter 1

This takes place at the end of the season finale, after the island and the called in shooting they had to attend to.

I own nothing and this is mainly for wicked nachos who inspired me to write this today.

…

After having an extremely long 14 hour shift, Shannon was more than willing to go home and just go straight to bed with her girlfriend. Having been knocked around by Hayman and then having to be prime negotiator at the Colin Street shooting, Shannon was eyeing off the time waiting for her girlfriend to come back from the hospital as she had gone to visit Michael.

To say Shannon was slightly jealous was cutting it fine. She felt bad for Michael and was worried about him as he was a friend of her's but she also couldn't help but feel jealous as she stood there watching Stella and Michael's interaction while he was loaded into the ambulance as well as the torn expression on Stella's face when Lawson had told Stella they had to go to a shooting. The way Lawson had told her it sounded like he thought Stella was his girlfriend, but she knew she couldn't blame Lawson for that. He didn't know that she and Stella had been going out for almost 11 months now, only Josh knew and they had planned to keep it that way until they got to the one year mark in their relationship.

She knew she could trust Stella and that she wouldn't go there with Michael again since she was with Shannon so she pushed her thoughts aside as she rubbed her eyes while Christian walked in with Leon.

"Hey Shan, good work today." Leon said.

"Thanks Leon, good work on the competition, Kerry told me about it, hopefully you win third place." Shannon says with a smile.

"Yeah well I was thinking the whole team could go, but I think there will be a bit of tension now." Leon says.

"I'd say, if looks could kill." Christian said.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked curious as to what the tension would be.

"Oh well Stella gave Michael a kiss while the paramedics were tending to him on the island and Audrey saw, I don't know what that will mean, but I doubt Audrey is going to be so forgiving this time." Leon said.

"Oh yeah, me either." Shannon says distractedly.

"You right Shannon?" Christian asked as he noted the blank expression on her face.

"Oh yeah, do you mind if I get a lift with you, I left my car at home." She said standing up as Christian shut his locker.

"Yeah no worries." Christian said slinging his bag onto his shoulders.

"See you guys on Monday." Leon said.

"See ya." They said walking out to the car park.

…

Lying on the couch in her living room, Shannon's phone starts ringing on the coffee table. Sighing she leans over and picks it up, checks the cell display. Seeing it flashing with Stella she lets it ring through. Within a couple of seconds her phone rang again and she ignored yet. The third time though she realised Stella wouldn't give up and chance were Stella would most likely than come to her house to check up on her and she didn't really want that, especially because she had a key now to her house.

Sighing she answers her phone with a tired "Hi."

"Hey I have been back at base for the past twenty minutes now and I already showered and everything, where are you?" Stella asked sounding concerned.

"At home." The sergeant responded.

"Why, how did you get home?" Stella asked.

"Christian gave me a lift." Shannon said.

"What have I done wrong, what is with the one worded responses?" the senior constable asked sounding annoyed.

"Well why don't you tell me what you did wrong, because it seemed everyone else knew before your girlfriend did." Shannon sneered.

"What the hell did I do." Stella almost yelled through the phone.

"Are you really that clueless?" Shannon said angrily.

"Apparently so, so why don't you just tell me." Stella said frustrated through the phone while pinching the bridge of her nose as Josh walked in curious as to what had gotten Stella so worked up.

"Maybe he has something to do with the fact that you made out with Michael on the island infront of the whole team, infront of his what I am guessing is his now ex-girlfriend or ex fling, and then you looked torn as to whether you were going to go with him or not when we had to attend the shooting, or maybe it's to do with the little looks at each other I had to observe as I stood there waiting to leave, trying to push away my concerns about my girlfriend having romantic feelings stirred up for her ex fling, when I later discover at the end of the shift that you kissed him, and I had to find out from Leon and Christian, while I waited for you to come from the hospital, so excuse me for wanting to go home." Shannon ranted through her phone, groaning softly as she experienced her headache getting intense from the argument.

"Oh Shan, can you let me explain please, it was nothing…" Stella began to explain softly.

"If you really think that it was nothing, then I don't want to talk to you." Shannon yelled again.

"Shan, please." Stella begged.

"Stella I can't do this right now, please just let me be." Shannon says before hanging up her phone and closing her eyes as the tiredness snuck back up onto her.

…

"I'm presuming that was Shannon then." Josh says putting stuff into his locker.

"Yeah." Stella said sitting back down onto the bench.

"What happened Stel? He asked shutting his locker and leaning against it.

"She found out about the kiss between Michael and me and now she is pissed." Stella says.

"I bet she is, she has a bit of an angry side to her, once you piss her off, it takes a lot of work, she has every right to be pissed Stel." Josh said calmly.

"I know but she wouldn't even let me explain." Stella said as she let a few tears roll down her cheek. Stella wasn't one to show she had weaknesses, especially when it came to being in front of the boys, but she knew Josh wouldn't hold this against her so she let her pain be seen.

Sighing, Josh walked over and sat down, placing a comforting arm around her.

"Put yourself in her shoes, she loves you, you have been together for almost a year now, and she finds out you kissed someone else, not from her girlfriend but someone else who probably made it seem bigger than it seems. Now you may have some unresolved feelings for Michael, I am not entirely sure and you may not be either, but I know for sure you love Shannon with all your heart, but you do need to give her some space before you try and work through this together, you will get through it but it may take time." He said.

"I know Josh, but I can't have her mad at me for that long, I can barely spend a night from her and it sucks when we have that odd shift where one of us works and the other doesn't, I just need to make sure she is okay." Stella said placing her head into her hands.

"The main thing is gaining her trust back, that is going to be the thing that takes the longest and you can't hold that against her, not for a second, you did the wrong thing primarily so you need to master your patience levels, now you're going to head home and leave Shan be, I will check up on her and let you know how she is doing okay?" he said patting her back before standing up.

"Thanks Josh, you're the best." Stella said wiping the tears away before standing up to give him a hug.

"Just don't stuff up again, I'm backing for you guys." Josh said rubbing her head before walking out of the room.

Sighing, Stella picks up her bag and walks out of base, knowing it's going to be a long couple of days followed by a long couple of weeks.

…

Drifting in and out of consciousness, Shannon is roused by a constant banging on her door. Thinking its Stella she curses and hopes she will either give up or just open the door so she doesn't have to listen to the constant banging that made her head pound.

"Shan, open up or I will knock the door down." Josh yells out.

Groaning at the fact it is Josh, she contemplates how to handle it. Realising he would be true to her word, she gets up and walks slowly to the door as her head starts to spin.

"It's open." Shannon says without any emotion or tone to her voice as she is greeted by the sight of Josh and Tash.

"Nice to see you to Shan, can we come in?" Josh asks.

"I guess." She says dejectedly walking back to the couch slowly as she loses her balance a couple of times before she sits down and leans her head back onto the couch and closes her eyes.

"How you doing Shan?" Josh asked as he sat down on the other couch while Tash put her bag down onto the coffee table and opening it up.

"I'm okay." Shannon says in a monotone.

"How are after the conversation with Stella?" Josh asked.

"Fine." Shannon says without much emotion.

"Stella was pretty upset when you hung up on her." He said.

"Well she did the wrong thing Josh and when you do the crime you pay the time." She said with her eyes still closed.

"Don't you care at all?" Josh asks, shocked at her calm reaction.

"Of course I care, I'm just too tired to show it, I can't feel anything at the moment." Shannon says.

"Shannon, how are you feeling physically?" Tash asks.

"I have a headache, I'm feeling dizzy and extremely tired, and I just really don't feel anything emotionally right now." Shannon says.

"Shannon, how badly was the fight on the boat?" Tash asked.

"I don't know, I can't really remember that part to clearly, it's a bit hazy." Shannon says opening her eyes.

"Do you think you may have knocked your head or gotten whacked over the head a couple of times?" Tash asked as she shined the light over Shannon's pupils.

"It's possible I guess, I was cleared for work though by the ambo's I know that." Shannon said.

"You told them you copped a knock or two as you had to duck and you copped a few punches and hits with the chain." Josh interrupted.

"Well it looks like you have a delayed mild concussion by the sounds of all your symptoms which we need to monitor that is why you can't feel anything emotionally at the moment but that will pass, I need to check your body for other injuries, make sure they aren't too serious." Tash says while looking over at Josh with warning in her eyes.

"That's my cue, I'm going to go get a glass of water." Josh says heading towards the kitchen.

"Okay, let's check the damage." Tash says as she helps Shannon lift up her top.

…

"Hey Stell it's me." Josh whispers.

"Why are you whispering, are you with Shan?" Stella asks sounding concerned.

"Yeah, I can't tell what the damage is between you guys at the moment, she can't feel anything emotionally at the moment which has been caused by a delayed mild concussion, so we have to keep her monitored so she will be coming to our place whether she likes it or not, I will keep you posted, I gotta go, chin up okay." Josh says.

"Okay, thanks heaps Josh." Stella says before hanging up.

….

Walking out Josh see's Tash standing with Shannon who has a small bag with her.

"We are ready to go home now." Tash says holding onto Shannon's free arm.

"Alright, let's go then." Josh says before walking out after them hoping that Shannon will be okay and he can help mend the damage that has been caused between the two people closest to him, so he was more than willing to be the messenger that got shot if it meant Stella and Shannon worked things out.


	2. Chapter 2

So here is my next update. Not my best but meh.

Thanks for the reviews, and I think the next update after this will be slightly better.

…

Monday.

Walking into base, Stella is a bundle of nerves. She hadn't seen Shannon for two days and only got a sms from Josh saying she went back home last night as Tash was convinced Shannon's concussion was gone and the only issue was a bit of tenderness from her injuries.

It mad her sick with worry not knowing how she was doing or being able to be the person to look after her injured girlfriend. Stella couldn't believe she had been such an idiot for giving Michael that damn stupid kiss, she didn't even know why she did it, even though he was on his deathbed she shouldn't have kissed him and she was now beating herself up over it and paying the price for her actions.

Walking into the locker room, you could cut the tension with a knife. As Stella said hi to everyone, Shannon just nodded and went back to doing up her boots.

"Shannon and Stell, your with me and the boys are with Josh, lets hop to it.

Sighing, Stella finishes strapping on her gun holster before following them, knowing it was going to be a long day.

…

After a short shift that seemed to drag on due to the tension, Stella was in a hurry to go home. Shannon had kept the conversation strictly on the topic of work and Lawson ended up having to pull them up for what he classified as "Bizarre Behaviour" as he had never seen the girls like this. Sure he had witnessed many tiffs between Grace and Stella but with Shannon they never seemed to have the issues that Stella had with Grace, leaving Lawson to feel very confused.

Looking up from putting stuff in her bag as she hears the familiar clicking sound of boots heading towards the lockers, Stella see's Shannon standing at the entrance with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I think we need to talk." She simply said from her position.

"Really?" Stella asked surprised.

"Yep, meet me at the Old Fitzroy Hotel in half hour." Shannon says before walking out without letting Stella say anything.

Grateful that she was willing enough now to talk to her, Stella simply shrugged off Shannon's cold demeanour and quickly rushed to get her stuff organised as she didn't want to disappoint Shannon by turning up late.

….

Walking into the Hotel, Stella's eyes automatically scanned the room trying to locate Shannon, and after a minute of scanning, she finally located Shannon sitting at the bar while a guy was unsuccessively trying to hit on her. Seeing that Shannon was getting annoyed at the guy, Stella walked up to Shannon and said "Sorry if you had to wait for long."

"No worries, this guy was just leaving." Shannon says glaring at him while his mates that were sitting at a table a couple of metres away started laughing as he sat back down with them with a defeated look on his face.

"So what did you want to say?" Stella asked nervously thinking that Shannon may want to break up with her but she was hoping for a second chance.

"I'm still really pissed about this, and it probably will be for a while, but I'm willing to hear your side of the story, but I can't promise to be so easily forgiving." Shannon said while sipping her wine.

"Okay, I don't know where exactly I should begin." Stella says looking at Shannon questionly.

"How about you just explain as to why you did it, why you didn't tell me and where your feelings lie." Shannon says staring ahead of her at the different types of alcohol sitting on the shelf.

"Well I know it's stupid, I just didn't think at the time, I was just saying all this crap about the shit we have to go through while on the job and life etc. while we waited for the paramedics to arrive and I was keeping pressure on the wound, feeling all that blood seeping through my hands like a river, when he gained consciousness he asked me to kiss him, so I did, it was just impulse because he was on his deathbed, I didn't tell you because there was no right time for it and my feelings lie with you Shannon." Stella says looking at her intently.

"When was the right time to tell me Stella, what you didn't think I wouldn't find out about it?" Shannon asked while looking at her.

"Of course not, of course I knew you would find out about it, but I was hoping to tell you after work had finished when no-one was around to comment on it." Stella said.

"And you think you have no feelings for Michael what so ever?" the older woman asked.

"Of course I have feelings for him, his like a younger annoying brother to me, but I swear there are no romantic feelings for him, I know that for a fact, I swear I will never be so stupid again, please Shannon, just give me another chance." Stella begged.

"I need some time to process this, I hope you understand." Shannon said.

"What does that mean for us?" the Senior Constable asked.

"I don't know yet, I just need time to wrap my head around it, if I have that time then I think we could make another go of things, but I just need my space right now, we have a lot to work through." She said looking at the younger woman.

"I know that Shannon, I'm willing to give you all the time and space that you need, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make this work, and you are so worth it I swear to you Shan, just give me another chance." Stella said while looking at her girlfriend intently.

"Okay, one more chance." Shannon says finishing her last drop of wine before walking out with Stella's gaze fixated on her back until she was out of sight.

….

It had been exactly a week since Shannon had said she would give Stella a second chance, 5 days since Shannon started holding Stella's hand again, and 5 days since Shannon had asked Stella to stay with her at night because she couldn't sleep without her there to keep her nightmares from the island at bay.

They still weren't on speaking terms though, Shannon kept the conversations between them at a bare minimum, but Stella didn't mind, she was just relieved that she was letting her in slowly, she had trust issues, and Stella understood this so she just did what her girlfriend wanted, careful not to overstep those boundaries that had been set, she was more than happy to hold her girlfriend at night, nice and tight, that was all she needed, to have her girlfriend safe in her arms and finally getting some sleep.

Going into work that day though, Shannon was acting a bit weird. She was always in a daze that morning before they left and she had a death grip on Stella's hand at almost all times. Stella had quizzed her on it a couple of times, but Shannon just shook her head and said it was nothing.

As they were given their car assignments for the day, Stella went to head into TR1 with Lawson and Christian, when Shannon stopped Stella in her tracks.

"Be careful today please." Shannon said gravely.

"Babe, I always am." Stella replied perplexed at her girlfriend's behaviour.

"Nah Stell, I really have a bad feeling about today, please just be careful." Shannon said.

"Alright, I swear I will be careful." Stella said giving her a reassuring smile as she went to leave.

Still not feeling at ease, Shannon grabbed her arm, and before Stella could say anything, she felt Shannon's lips on her mouth. Moaning at the missed contact between them, Stella wrapped her arms around Shannon and gave returned the passionate kiss.

Pulling apart a minute later, they rested their heads against each other trying to catch their breath.

"I'm sorry Stell for pushing you away." Shannon said.

"It's okay, I don't blame you." Stella said.

"I love you so much." Shannon said pulling away.

"I love you too babe." Stella replies knowing this bad feeling has really gotten to her girlfriend.

"SHAN, STELL GET A WRIGGLE ON." Lawson yelled.

"We better get going babe." Stella says giving her one more kiss and a reassuring smile before walking out.

Sighing Shannon follows knowing this bad feeling isn't going away as she only feels it intensifying.

….

Having driven around for most of the day and only dealing with minor domestics, Josh noticed Shannon seems to be slightly distracted while driving.

"Shan." Josh says.

"Yeah Josh." Shannon says not taking her eyes off the road.

"Pull over." He said.

"Huh?" She asked confused.

"I'm driving; you're too distracted to be driving." Josh says.

"I'm not distracted; I have dealt with those domestics easily." Shannon said.

"I'm not saying it's affecting that aspect of your performance but I can't risk you behind the wheel." Josh says.

"Fine." She says pulling over and hopping out, swapping positions with Josh and he pulls out back onto the road.

"So why are you so distracted?" Josh asks glancing at her.

"I just have a bad feeling that's all." Shannon says.

"I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about." Josh says.

"I hope not, but I cleared the air with Stella, I just can't shake this feeling off." She says as Leon's voice comes over the coms.

"Lawson, there is a fight going on at the St Kilda Pier, apparently it's getting violent, you guys are closest."

"Copy that Leon, we are 5 away." Lawson's voice came back over.

Hearing this, Shannon couldn't help but feel nauseous, she couldn't explain it but the feeling was overwhelming and she slowly started to struggle to breathe as her heart rate began to speed up.

….

Pulling up at the pier, Stella parked the car and raced out with the others. Seeing the struggle between two men, Stella and Christian tried to pull them apart while Lawson tried to calm the situation down.

"What is going on here?" Lawson asked.

"My wife cheated on me with this bastard." The guy Stella was now restraining spat out.

"Well she was begging for it, she kept complaining how you were always working, never paying attention to her, but I was always there for her." The other guy stated as Christian dragged him back a bit.

"Well I can understand how that would make you upset, but you can't, go decking the guy in public." Lawson said.

"Yeah, that's right, it's not my fault your wife loves me more." The guy yelled out.

"You fucking arsehole, I'm going to kill you." He yelled and struggled against Stella as he tried to launch forward.

By launching forward he hadn't anticipated Stella's body weight to fall onto him and he tumbled into the water with her.

"SHIT." Lawson yelled out as Christian let go of the guy and started to take his weapons off ready to jump into the water.

Watching it all unfold, Christian getting ready to jump in, the guy decided to do a runner and Lawson had to chase after him.

Seeing the guy rise above water, Christian notices his pushing Stella under.

"OI stop pushing her under." He yelled out as the guy goes back under and back up again.

"I can't swim." The guy yells out.

"Shit!" Christian says jumping into the water.

"Leon, we need paramedics here, and some backup." Lawson says over the coms while running.

"Already on it Lawson, TR2 should be there in about 2 minutes." Leon says while typing away furiously on his keyboard as Kerry and Audrey watched on.

….

Speeding down the busy roads towards the pier, Josh is having trouble calming down Shannon who has just heard about Stella falling into the water and was now currently hyperventilating.

"Step on it Josh." Shannon said while taking deep breaths.

"I am Shan, just calm down." Josh says looking at her.

"Don't tell me to calm down Josh, that's my girlfriend out there." Shannon said feeling guilty for having pushed her girlfriend away.

As Josh was approaching the pier, all of a sudden they hear the screeching of car tires and the next thing they know it all goes black.

…


	3. Chapter 3

Again thank you to all that reviewed.

…

"Leon, where the bloody hell are back up?" Lawson yells through the coms.

"I'll find out for you Lawson, TR2 should already be there." Leon says while looking up TR2's location and seeing it at a standstill near the pier.

"Josh, where are you?" Leon asks.

Hearing nothing, Leon tries again and fails to get anything but static.

"Shannon, what's going on?" Leon asks urgently while Audrey gets another back up car to their location.

"Leon can you see if you can get anything from their lapel cams?" Kerry asks.

"I can try." Leon says bringing up both of Shannon and Josh's cameras on screen.

…

"Got you, you bugger." Lawson says as he tackles the guy to the ground and flexi cuffs him before pulling him up.

"So why did you run?" Lawson asks as he drags him along quickly back to where he left Christian and Stella.

"I panicked okay, if we didn't have that fight they wouldn't have gone under the water." He says.

"So what, running was the better option was it?" Lawson asks.

"Well it seemed to be at the time." He replied looking down at the ground.

….

As Christian entered the water, he quickly swam over to them, quickly pulling the guy off Stella and holding on just under her arm as the guy clung onto Christian. Seeing two general duty officers walking over, he yells out "I need some help in here."

One of them gets there gear off and jumps in, quickly swimming over and dragging the guy away with him as Christian quickly drags Stella to the officer waiting for him to bring her up. Helping lift her up, the officer quickly places her on the ground just as Christian hops out. Checking her vitals and noticing her not breathing, Christian begins CPR compressions on her.

"Come on Stell, don't give up, wake up damn it." He said as he reached his 20th compression she started to cough up water.

Rolling her over into the recovery position, Christian breathes a sigh of relief just as the paramedics roll up.

….

Reaching Christian's position, Lawson notices that there are only two general duty officers there as well as the paramedics so he hands the guy over to the officers before making his way to Christian.

"Hey is Stell okay?" Lawson asks.

"She should be, they are taking her and the guy to hospital now but they should be fine." Christian says from his position on the floor as he feels lethargic.

"Josh and Shannon here?" Lawson asks.

"Not that I know of." Christian says.

"Well hop up, dry off and get dressed into some dry clothes, I'm going to see what is going on." Lawson says pulling Christian up before getting onto the coms again.

"Leon, where the hell are Josh and Shannon?" Lawson asks.

"Uhhh, well the car seems to be stationary at the pier's car park entrance, but we can't tell exactly what is going on, there is a general duties car a few minutes away to let us know what is going on as they aren't answering through the coms or their phones." Leon says as he looks at one of his monitors of a listing of jobs and seeing a traffic accident at the pier turn up on his screen listed as priority.

"Damn it." Leon muttered.

"What Leon?" Kerry asked.

"I think I know what has happened." Leon said while pointing to the flashing item on his screen.

"You have got to be kidding me." Kerry says as they all stare at it.

"Should we let Lawson know?" Audrey asks.

"Not yet, not until uniforms get back to us, we can't be sure it's them." Kerry says.

"I'm pretty sure it is Kerry." Leon says as he points to the images being feed though from their lapels showing images of people standing infront of the car looking dumbfounded.

"Yeah, well how about we just wait for uniforms hey?" Kerry says before walking out of the room.

…

"Lawson, General duties just came through with some info, Josh and Shannon seemed to have been hit by a car behind the rear end of the vehicle, and it's ended up going into one of the posts at the entrance point, Josh and Shannon are just waiting for an ambulance to arrive to check on their injuries and take them to hospital, the car appears to be a ride off at the moment, the other driver seems to be in a more serious condition though." Leon says.

"Thanks for that Leon, keep me posted." Lawson says signalling for Christian to get into the car.

…

Sitting in an upright position in the bed having gotten the all clear from the doctors who just wanted her to stay in overnight, Stella was waiting eagerly for Shannon to walk through those doors. Stella was happy she got to be in a private room though, one of the benefits of being a cop.

Just as she was looking around the room thinking of something to do, the whole team including Leon, Kerry and Audrey walked in, Audrey looking a bit uncomfortable to be there.

"Hey, where is Josh and Shan?" Stella asked noticing that the two of them were missing.

"They were involved in a car accident, nothing too major though." Lawson adds seeing the look on her face.

"Apart from the car being a ride off." Leon mumbled.

"How is that not major?" Stella asks shocked.

"Well apart from the car they were very lucky, they both just received some minor bumps and grazes, but something happened that neither of them will talk about." Kerry says.

"What do you mean they won't talk about it?" Stella asks.

"Well when they get asked what happened before hand, they both go quiet and avoid the question; they just talk about what happened after they got hit." Lawson says.

"What rooms are they in?" Stella asks.

"Same ward, Josh is in room 22, Shannon is in bed 4 room 29, she isn't too happy, she is with two elderly people, one who goes on about how the police force is nowhere near as good as it used to be, how they used to be able to sleep with the doors unlocked and windows opened with fewer members on the force compared to now where its more than what they used to have on the force but the streets are nowhere near as safe as they used to be, it's driving Shannon insane." Christian says with a chuckle.

"Oh the poor thing." Stella says feeling bad for her girlfriend.

"Yeah and the other guy in there is just staring at her, it's kinda creepy, his so old and just stares at her so intently." Audrey says speaking up for the first time and shivering at the thought as the conversation changed to Leon's antics at work.

…

After everyone had left her room once visiting hours were declared as over, Stella waiting for her hourly obs to be done, then she casually walked down the corridor as if she just wanted a casual stroll, and then as she approached Shannon's room and saw she looked like she was asleep, she decided to turn around until she heard the old woman's voice complaining about how she couldn't believe she had a police officer in her room who refused to take on board her opinions and defend the police force's actions. Sighing, Stella entered the room to rescue her girlfriend.

"Excuse me young lady, but you can't be in here, you're not a patient for this room." The old woman said.

"Sorry, I just need to steal my friend for a few minutes." Stella said as she saw Shannon open her eyes and sit up in the bed.

"Well you can't do that, she isn't allowed to leave." The woman said.

"Last I heard she wasn't on bed rest, and the nurses haven't turned off the ward's lights, and I wasn't told off for leaving my room, so I beg to differ that she can't leave if she wants to." Stella says politely even though the lady is ticking her off.

"Just because you're a member of the police force, doesn't mean you can do what you please in the hospital, you people need to learn you can't always get your way." The woman says to Shannon.

"Come on Shan." Stella says pulling her out of the bed before she walked up to the elderly guy who had been staring at Shannon the whole time and waved a hand infront of his face and he didn't even react.

"Creepy." Stella says pulling Shannon out of the room just as the old lady pushed the button for the nurse.

"Where are we going Stella, the nurses will be looking for me any minute coz of that lady." Shannon said.

"They will get over it, it's not bedtime yet for another hour so just chill." She says before opening the door to Josh's room.

"Nice to see you knock your mole, I see that drowning didn't too much to you." Josh says smiling from his bed.

"Nice to see you too chubby, I had to save Shannon from the old people in her room so I thought we could come give you company in this hell hole." Stella says taking a seat on one of the chairs next to his bed as Shannon took the other chair.

"Lawson and that were asking questions." Josh said.

"Yeah I know." Shannon said.

"I didn't tell them, I figured it was a once off." Josh said.

"Thanks Josh." Shannon said.

"What's this thing that everyone keeps talking about that you guys won't discuss with them?" Stella asked.

"I just had a bad feeling all day that kept intensifying, that mixed with a lack of sleep, meant Josh had to take over driving, then when we heard about I started hyperventilating, next thing we know we have these two general duty officers trying to wake us up because we got hit by a car which was speeding." Shannon said.

"Holy shit." Stella says.

"We wake up and the bonnet is pushed up all the way to the windscreen, they had to pry open the car, the back was the same, we were very lucky." Josh said.

"I'd say." Stella said just as a nurse came in.

"Guy's you need to get back to your own beds please." The nurse said.

"Five more minutes." Stella says with a small pout reminding them of a five year old.

"No, you need to leave now." The nurse said.

"Well can Shannon sleep in my bad tonight, there is enough room." Stella says with a hopeful look on her face.

"I'm afraid we can't." the nurse said.

"Oh come on please, Shannon has these creepy old guy staring at her and this old woman telling her about old policing ways, she could write a book on it for Shannon." Stella said.

"Oh, you must be talking about Mrs Mitchell and Mr Hadie, Mr Hadie is in catatonic stage and Mrs Mitchell just is set in her old ways, I guess I will allow it, it's only for one night, but you need to move now." The nurse said.

"Thank you." Stella said getting up and giving Josh a hug.

"You're hopeless." Josh muttered earning a slap on the chest before following Shannon and the nurse out to her room.

…

Lying in Stella's arms with the lights off, Shannon murmurs into her chest "I'm glad you're okay."

"I'm glad you're okay too." Stella says into her hair.

"I love you." Shannon says gripping onto Stella tightly.

"I love you too, now get some sleep." Stella says pressing a feather light kiss to her forehead.


End file.
